The art of stagecraft is on stunning display in the new theatrical version of Life of Pi, Yann Martel’s 2001 best-selling novel about a teenage Indian boy who inexplicably survives being stranded at sea for 227 days while sharing a small boat with a deadly Bengal tiger. If the metaphysical underpinnings of the tale don’t fully register in Lolita Chakrabarti’s Olivier Award-winning adaptation, audiences will nonetheless be thrilled by the spectacular Broadway production featuring virtuosic puppetry.
Also adapted into an award-winning film directed by Ang Lee, the story revolves around Pi (a superb Hiran Abeysekera, with Adi Dixit serving as alternate), the nickname of Piscine Molitor Patel, whose family owns a zoo in India. When his father (Rajesh Bose) decides that the political conditions in the country are proving too volatile, he arranges for the family and the zoo animals to be transported on a Japanese freighter ship to Canada. Along the way, the vessel sinks due to a massive storm, leaving Pi as the only survivor in a small lifeboat.
Well, not the only one. He discovers that several of the zoo animals are in the boat as well, including a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan, and a rat. Oh, and the tiger as well, whose innocuous-sounding name, Richard Parker, belies his fearsomeness. It isn’t long before the law of survival of the fittest has kicked in and the only animal left standing is the tiger, with Pi desperately attempting to figure out how not to get eaten by him.
[Read Roma Torre’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
We know in advance that Pi survives his horrific ordeal because the tale is told in flashback, with Pi recuperating in a Mexican hospital and being interrogated by a kindly Canadian diplomat (Kirstin Louie) and a much less sympathetic Japanese insurance investigator (Daisuke Tsuji) who finds Pi’s story wholly unbelievable. But that doesn’t detract from the show’s suspense, because what we don’t know is exactly how Pi manages to survive.
Life of Pi comes across as a rather thin story onstage, one that was surely richer and deeper in novelistic form. The central character is depicted as wise beyond his years, exploring multiple religions as a young boy and delivering philosophical and spiritual aphorisms like an old sage in an adolescent boy’s body. Those elements, however, are subsumed by the survival tale, which proves thrilling on its own terms, especially in this galvanizing staging by Max Webster in which all the animals are brought to life by an expert team of puppeteers. They include Fred Davis and Scarlet Wilderink, who shared the Best Supporting Actor Olivier Award for the London production.
Bear in mind, by the way, that this is not a show for young children, as the puppet animals, as adorable as they sometimes are, are shown behaving in typically animalistic bloodthirsty fashion that proves a far cry from The Lion King. Although kids would probably get a kick out of Richard Parker’s simulated excrement, dropping from his hind quarters, that a starving Pi attempts to eat out of desperation.
Besides the spellbinding puppetry, the production features stunning projection designs, special effects, lighting, sound design and musical underscoring that combine to create a truly stunning experience. That praise, however, must come with a caveat: Theatergoers would be well advised not to sit in the front orchestra section, as many of the projections, including the swirling ocean, are displayed on the particularly high stage floor, making viewing them difficult if not impossible from there. The best seats would definitely be in the front mezzanine.
The play feels somewhat drawn out at 135 minutes (including intermission), and the climactic narrative twist is too blatantly spoon-fed to the audience, as if the show’s creators were afraid that we would not be able to figure it out. But those are minor quibbles about this enthralling, wildly imaginative production.
Life of Pi opened March 30, 2023, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Tickets and information: lifeofpibway.com
